United States, North Korea end nuclear talks

Posted: Monday, January 18, 1999

By Clare NullisAssociated Press

GENEVA -- With no immediate breakthrough in sight, the United States adjourned talks Sunday on gaining access to what it believes is an underground site North Korea is using to develop nuclear weapons.

U.S. Ambassador Charles Kartman and North Korean Deputy Foreign Minister Kim Gye Gwan will meet again next weekend after a round of more general peace talks during the week, U.S. and North Korean diplomats said.

The wider talks, which start Tuesday, involve North and South Korea, along with the United States and China. The four sides launched the talks 13 months ago in an effort to replace the 1953 Korean War armistice with a permanent peace treaty. Until now, participants have made only slow headway on procedural issues.

Progress on the nuclear issue was expected to set the tone for the week's four-party talks.

Washington has so far rejected North Korean demands for $300 million in compensation to inspect the Kumchangni underground site, which was revealed last summer in satellite photos. Pyongyang says it needs the money because it won't be able to use the facility after outsiders have seen it, but denies it uses the site for nuclear weapons.

Detection of the site has renewed fears about the nuclear ambitions of the North's reclusive Communist government and inflamed tensions on the divided Korean peninsula.

The North Korean and American diplomats, who refused to give their names, gave no details about the adjourned round of weekend talks.

North Korea's deputy foreign minister told journalists earlier that the two sides were ''stuck'' in the opening sessions Saturday.

''I don't know whether we will manage to overcome our differences,'' Kim said before Sunday's meeting at North Korea's lakeside diplomatic mission.